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Photoshop: Create Web 2.0 Button

Buttons Photoshop tutorials are probably one of the hottest categories in any Photoshop tutorials site and since Web 2.0 is such hot topics now, lets go about doing a simple button suitable for any Web 2.0 application of websites. Tutorial after jump.

Create a blank canvas at about 500px (width) x 400px (height) to start off the button design. Create a new layer call ‘bg01‘. Select the Rounded Rectangular Tool, hold SHIFT and draw a round sided square in the center. Any color is fine at the current stage.

Call up the Blending Options of ‘bg01‘ and adjust the following styles:

Drop Shadow

Opacity: 40%

Distance: 0px

Spread: 0%

Size: 6px

Gradiant Overlay

Color stop: 0%, #d00031

Color stop: 100%, #ff2b5d

Hold CTRL, left click on ‘bg01‘ Layer Thumbnail to select its shape. Go Select -> Modify -> Contract and enter the value ‘2px‘. This will shrink the selected area by 2 pixel.

Create a new layer call ‘bg02‘ and filled the highlighted (after shrink) area with any color. I use #000000 black here. Double click on ‘bg02′ to launch up the Blending Option and tweak the following style.

Gradiant Overlay

Color stop: 0%, #c6002f

Color stop: 100%, #c6002f

Create another new layer for text, call it ‘txt‘. Insert your button’s text. I’ll use an alphabet to represent. The font styles I’m using here are as follow:

Rounded Arial Bold

150pt

Same, after deciding your text, double click on ‘txt’ to launch the Blending Options and tweak the following styles.

Drop Shadow

Opacity: 25%

Distance: 0px

Spread: 0px

Size: 5px

Inner Shadow

Opacity: 10%

Distance: 0px

Choke: 0

Size: 10px

Bevel Emboss

Depth: 1px

Direction: Down

Size: 0px

Softten: 0px

Highlight Mode Opacity: 32%

Shadow Mode Opacity: 32%

Gradiant Overlay

Color Stop:0% #d2d2d2

Color Stop:100% #f0efef

Button is almost done. Let’s give it a little glow over the top part. Hold CTRL, left click ‘bg02‘ Layer Thumbnail to highlight the outer shape; choose Eclipse Marquee Tool. Now hold ALT, with Eclipse Marquee Tool selected, drag is across to minus out bottom half of the highlighted area. Refer to image above.

With the top portion highlighted and Eclipse Marquee Tool still selected, right click and choose Feather; enter 15px for the radius.

Create a new layer, call it ‘glow‘ and fill the highlighted part with white [#ffffff]. This should add glow effect to the top part of your button. Final product should look something like the image below.